A Trial of Judgment: The Final Reckoning

We have come to the final moments, the last part of what ended up being a long scene, longer than I’d anticipated, or maybe not. Sometimes I think these are gonna run longer or shorter and I’m always surprised. But, no, I’m always a little surprised.

I did pass another milestone last night: one hundred ten thousand words written. And since I ended up with a little over twelve hundred words last night, I went one more and made it one hundred and eleven thousand. It’s another nice point, and the next up are one hundred twenty thousand (of course), and one hundred twenty-five thousand, or an eighth of a million, if you’re fractionally inclined. At the rate I’m zipping along I should reach one hundred and fifty thousand in about forty days, or some time around the end of September.

Here is it, nice and pretty, not hand drawn like Annie zapping someone.

(All excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Two: B For Bewitching, copyright 2015 by Cassidy Frazee)

“And stop.” Professor Chai raised her arms over her head as she issued the command. “Annie, please return to your starting position—” As Annie touched down, dissipated her magic, and walked back to where she’d begun the trial, the professor turned to Nurse Bianca, who had come over from the hospital and was now giving Rikkard a quick checkup. “Is he good?” Bianca nodded before patting the boy on the shoulder. “Good—” Ramona headed for the center of the mat and motioned for her two combatants to join her. “Please come.”

Annie walked slowly to the center of the mat and stopped about a meter from Rikkard, who seemed just a bit unsteady on his feet: she expected that was the reason Nurse Bianca a step behind him. The left few spells left her a bit winded, but that was passing quickly, and in another minute no one would know she’d just participated in her first judgment trial.

Ramona held out her hands to both combatants. “Please face each other—” They both adjusted their stances so they were face-to-face. “—and bow.” Both students executed a short bow, and for the first time since they’d met a slight smile appeared on Rikkard’s face. “I want to congratulate you both for the honor you showed each other, and the fact that there no penalties were registered against either of you.” She folded her hands across her torso. “Well done.”

Even though she wasn’t yet declared the winner, Annie was as aware of the outcome as the boy across from her. “Thank you.” She shook his hand. “And a good match from you as well.”

He exhaled slowly. “You should consider going out for your coven’s combat team.”

She shook her head. “I only fight when it’s necessary.”

His smile grew wider. “Probably best for the rest of us.”

“Rikkard, you may leave. You fought a good battle: thank you for your participation.” Ramona gave him a slight nod right before Bianca placed her hands on his shoulders and jaunted away. She then turned to the girl on her right. “Annie, you are the victor of this trial, and the moment has come to pass judgment. Do you which to continue?”

There wasn’t any need to ask Annie twice. “Yes, Professor.”

Rikkard is a good sport about getting his ass handed to him, and his remark about it probably being best Annie isn’t in a combat club is telling, because it would seem that most of the people he faces don’t have the same skills Annie has. Probably because they aren’t little sorceresses who can handle their Morte spells . . .

It’s also sort of telling that he gets jaunted off to the hospital right away for a check-up, because Annie juiced his ass probably harder than Lovecraft zapped Kerry back when their first started. Helena, however, was using “invisible” charges, which is to say she was using Kerry’s electrical field, the one generated by his body. Annie’s not quite there, but she’s close to doing that. She just needs a, um, “partner” for testing.

Now it’s judgment time, and Lisa has to pay the piper–and Annie isn’t playing a cute, dancy pop song right now–

Ramona turned her gaze upon the gathered students. “Lisa, please come forward.” The girl stepped away from a small group of students and slowly approached. “Come to the center of the mat and face Annie.” The professor waited until both girls were standing before her, facing each other. While Annie appeared calm and relaxed, Lisa seemed understandably pensive. “Lisa, your champion has lost this trial, and in accordance with trial protocol, you are required to face Annie’s judgment.” She turned to victor. “Annie, you have twenty-four hours to issue your judgment against Lisa—”

“I won’t need that much time, Professor.” Annie stared down the smoldering Lisa. “I’m prepared to pass judgment now.”

“You may proceed.”

“Thank you.” Annie’s eyes narrowed as she spoke the words she’d considered all through the afternoon’s Advanced Formulistic Magic. “Lisa, from now and until you leave this school for good, you will not speak ill of me, you will not make disparaging remarks, you will no longer make up lies about me in any public area where I could overhear you speaking.” She closed the distance between them by half, feeling Lisa’s anger burn into her. “What you said this morning was horrid and disgusting, and I will not stand for your crap any longer. I can’t control what you say about me in private, but should I ever hear you speak of me as you did today—or learn that you are the source of any nasty, perverted rumors—I will call you out again, and you will fight me without benefit of a champion.”

Now, it may seem like Annie should be making Lisa swab floors with her tongue, but keep in mind, if she went out of her way to lay something crazy on Lisa, Ramona would likely tell her, “No, do it again,” and Annie would need to regroup. As it is, she just laid a gag order on Lisa to stop talking shit about her, and if she blows it, Annie’s gonna haul her back up to the manor and zap the shit out of her–which is not what Lisa wants to hear–

The mask of anger finally fell from Lisa’s face, and she grew panicky for the first time. She turned to Ramona. “She can’t do that.”

“Yes, she can.” Ramona spoke clear and slow. “It’s a common request from a victor that if the vanquished violates a judgment, they must enter another trial themselves.” Her head tilted slightly to the right. “As knowledgeable as you appear about judgment trials, I would have believed you’d know about that stipulation.” She turned back to Annie. “Do you have anything further to add, Annie?”

“No, Professor.” She tilted her head back just enough that it appeared she was looking down her nose at Lisa. “That is all.”

“Understood.” Ramona walked backwards a few steps and addressed every student in the room. “As Mistress of Judgments for the School of Salem I declare Annie’s judgment to be fair and evenhanded. Lisa—” She ignored the furious glare focused upon her. “—if you feel this judgment is unduly severe, you have forty-eight hours to appeal my decision, at which time I’ll bring the matter up before the Ruling Council. I should remind you that I have never had a decision overturned—” A slight upturn appeared at the left corner of Ramona’s mouth. “—though there’s always a first time.

“And with that . . .” Ramona spread her arms wide. “This Judgment Trial is over, and our business is concluded. It is now seventeen forty-six; leave now and you’ll make dinner by eighteen. Thank you for coming.” She bowed, turn, and walked off the mat and out of the room.

What Ramona did was, in her own way, let Lisa know she’s aware she gamed the system and lost, and if she wants to bitch about the outcome, fine, go do so, but you’re gonna lose. Professor Chai doesn’t talk smack, but she is a firm believer in karma, and she’s knows the Karma Express pulled into the station and pretty much ran Lisa’s ass down. Lisa’s not a Moriarty-like mastermind of intrigue: she’s just a mean girl who thinks being a bitchy witch is cool.

She just picked the wrong person to screw with.

And someone close to Annie knows the same:

Annie didn’t wait to see if Lisa any something to say: she turned her back on the girl and walked towards Kerry, who had moved away from the crowd and was waiting for her just beyond the mat. “Did I disappoint?”

He shook his head. “Not in the least.” He waited until Annie had slipped on her flats before giving her a hug. “You were incredible. How do you feel?”

“Good. A little tired after that lightning shot, but—” She kissed him on the lips. “—I’m fine now.”

“So I see.” He kissed her back, holding it for several seconds. “I thought you might be tired because you’re so . . . calm. You should be really excited after that win.”

“Hum.” She shot him a impish grin. “That is not my style.”

“Oh, come on: just this once. Here—” Kerry slipped his arms around Annie’s thighs and lifted her into the air. “I’ll help you celebrate.”

Annie laughed, because she’d never had Kerry touch her this way, not with dozens of people standing around. But she liked the feeling of excitement that immediately filled her as she was hoisted into the air, and she realized he was right: she had every reason in the world to get excited, to celebrate a victory that she figured few in the room thought she’d achieve.

With Kerry holding her tight Annie leaned back and threw her arms into the air. She started laughing as she turned her gaze towards the ceiling, because not only did it feel wonderful to have emerged victorious, in that instant she realized on other thing: just like Helena, she’d given herself a reputation.

No one was going to make light of, or underestimate her, ever again.

Though you can probably imagine that some fool will, because now they know how Annie fights–at least in this environment–and they’ll try to match her moves and attack, because everyone wants to take out the fastest gun, right? We’ve already shown that making Annie mad isn’t a good thing, and if you keep doing it–

Her file isn’t red flagged–to indicate she killed someone–but if it was known, people wouldn’t mess with her. Really, if anything about KC were known to students, people would leave Kerry and her alone.

I have to do this again. It sux.
Anyways…. Lisa pretty much got away with murder. Her judgement is so puny. I mean, not speaking ill of Annie within her hearing distance is it ? It should have been do not speak ill of anyone, period. So, alright, Annie is able to show what she can do, but I highly doubt it will ever change Lisa. I suspect her hatred will grow even more because she was utterly humiliated.

And Rikkard seems to be an honorable person. I say, ” seems “. I don’t knowhow Lisa managed to convince him to fight for her. Maybe he wants to show off, too ? He’s an idiot . Why ? Because he knew he would be fighting a 13 year old girl. Where’s honor in that ? Maybe he knows of Annie’s reputation, and therefore wants to see for himself if her reputation is true or not. Well, now he knows.

Lisa’s presence at Salem is toxic. The school should know who to watch out for. Maddie , most especially, should be concerned.

If Annie had tried to make her judgment *too* wide, then Ramona would likely have asked her to modify it–after all, this is about personal slights, not changing the behavior of someone just because they pissed *you* off. This actually gets addressed in the next scene, the last of the chapter.

And Rikkard likely didn’t know anything about Annie. He may know a little sorcery, but he may not have known much beyond Annie being in the Advanced Self Defense. After all, no one has actually *seen* Annie using her Morte spells on anyone save Kerry, and no one KNEW she could do Lightning except Helena (who told her to get Kerry to teach her) and Kerry (who taught her).

For all we know, since Lisa had time to work this out, she was “friendly” to the boy. Who knows? What will get around the school is (1) Lisa got punked and (2) Annie kicked a D Level’s ass like a boss. Helena will probably buy her a lemon soda for getting her bad ass rep. 🙂

I can’t wait to see that. Tbh, I don’t know what will rattle her… she can’t even acknowledge and recognize Helena’s power over her and she’s only 12. That’s why I think she’s medically psychotic, one who is devoid of empathy and conscience.

Some kids are like that. She’s a witch, she has powers, and she’s a bitch. She was probably a bully before coming to school. Maybe she’ll make the mistake of confronting Annie on the path back from the Observatory some night and Annie will fuck her up bad just to make her point.

She should have her ass whooped everytime she opens her mouth. It should be a routine kind of thing…. cause and effect, y’know . Maybe she can recognize cause and effect, just like any animal who’s being trained.

Here’s where she may get her ass kicked by others: 1, they saw that she has, as we used to say when I was younger, Alligator Mouth and Hummingbird Ass, which means she talks a lot of shit but won’t back it up. Everyone knows now if she doesn’t think she can beat you she’ll look for someone to fight for her. Which leads to: 2, not a lot of people are gonna be willing to *maybe* get their asses kicked for her. Yes, she got the judgment, but Rikkard was taken to the hospital. Who wants that deal? And this leads to 3, who does she pick on THIS time? She can’t pick on Annie, but . . . is there anyone close to Annie she can screw with? You know, she just might thing Kerry is a pushover, too . . .

let Lisa find out what will happen if she screws with Kerry. I know it will make Kerry look so lame and without a backbone, like he’s hiding under her skirt. Tbh, her girlfriend was being insulted and humiliated in front of everyone, and he couldn’t even protect her from the harsh treatment Annie’s getting from Lisa and Franky. He should have drawn a line on what they can take and cannot take. What was he doing while his girlfriend was being insulted ? Spacing out ?

He was telling her to let it go. Remember, as pointed out, Kerry’s so used to having people talk shit about him (parents and kids he went to school with) that he just blows it off. The thing is, up until now, Kerry’s hasn’t been much of a fighter/defender of himself. That was before he knew magic and started getting better at self defense. That’s brought up his confidence, and . . . well, someone screws with him, he might surprise the hell out of people. It’s not that he’s afraid of people, per say, but he’s leaned to become non-confrontational. He probably thought Lisa wasn’t “worth it”, either, but now that he’s seen Annie work out on Lisa’s champ, he’ll probably not be as worried about yanking someone’s ass into the ring if they get in his face.

I don’t blame him. Prudence is the better part of valor. However, though it’s commendable to be non-confrontational, letting go of actions like what Lisa did to Annie will not solve the problem. They will not go away. She’s getting more and more empowered, to the point that almost all their classmates are already with her, snickering and giggling at every nasty thing Lisa throws Kerry’s and Annie’s way. Of course, it’s a natural reaction. Everybody loves a winner. But then, there will come a point when such behavior will become de rigueur at Salem and therefore what’s the point of going to school …. by teaching these nasty students more magic without teaching them that knowledge comes with responsibility, Salem will actually become the breeding ground of dangerous witches aka terrorists. Therefore, I say Annie did the right thing . And should continue to do so if the teachers won’t. And become the Headmistress in the near future.

Annie did the right thing: it was something she had to do, because she needed to put Lisa in her place. About a third of the B Levels were laughing, and that’s because a lot of the B Levels are feeling like those two–we know who–are being treated specially. It doesn’t matter that they *are* special, but you know how teens that age are: they jump on anyone who stands out. Let’s just say there’s a bit of resentment with these two, and anything that paints them as less than perfect is good with some of their level mates. Not to mention they’ve probably gotten tired of all those PDAs. 🙂

Or, I think Kerry should be a Headmaster. He’s got the right temperament for the position.

Oh, I can understand being awkward about the lovey doveys PDAs. I myself would be like, ” Can you not, please ? ” I’m sure there are a lot of eye-rolling going on, but it’s stlill wrong to encourage bullying.

The outcome is good. ” And the rest of you, don’t even think about it. “

*Dances a happy jig* YES! Those are some very smart kids. Had I been in the same situation, I would have been too wound up and still working off steam to think of conditions like that. She not only made sure the back-talking stopped, she made sure that if it didn’t, Lisa wouldn’t be able to call out a champion next time. Even better!

A nice roundabout way of bitch-slapping Lisa in the face, I’d say, and it was done with the right protocol, so no one could fault her for it. Well done, Annie. Well done. 🙂

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

Originally posted on Wide Awake But Dreaming: Let’s have a “I’m in Pain” update first. Well, shoulders are better this morning, but they were on fire most of the night last night, and I was using salve and ibuprofen like it was going out of style for most of the evening. I’m much better this morning,…